How the 'Billions' creators shadowed hedge funds and attorneys to make the most anticipated show of 2016

Since their debut film “Rounders” (1998) shed light on the
underground poker world in New York, screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien have been the go-to guys in Hollywood
for movies about money, greed, and power.

They’ve written movies from the George Clooney
caper “Ocean’s Thirteen” to the Ben Affleck-Justin
Timberlake thriller "Runner Runner" about the dark side of
offshore gambling, while creating the short-lived ESPN drama
“Tilt.”

For their latest venture into television, the duo have moved to
the world of hedge funds and the people in government who try to
regulate them in the new Showtime series “Billions” (premiering
on Sunday).

Starring Paul Giamatti as U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhodes and Damian
Lewis (“Homeland”) as hedge-fund bigwig Bobby “Axe” Axelrod, the
show follows the mental chess game between the two and their
factions as Axe continues to dominate, perhaps in not the most
legal of ways, while Chuck waits to catch him, and uses
questionable methods to get what he wants.

(L) Paul Giamatti in
"Billions."Showtime

As with seemingly all great TV shows, there’s after-hours
domestic turmoil, including subplots involving 9/11 and
S&M.

“We have long been fascinated with the state of commerce in the
American story — it’s something that has interested us since we
were much younger and watched movies like ‘Wall Street’ and
‘Glengarry Glen Ross,’” Levien told Business Insider.

The two began talking about the project and researching around
2007. Then the idea evolved after the events of 9/11 and the
financial collapse in 2008. Finally, by 2013, the two got an
idea from their agent to connect with another client: New York
Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.

Koppelman and Levien admit they took the meeting with
trepidation, as one of their big rules is to never let an
outsider come into the work they're developing, but they softened
to the idea once they heard Sorkin’s interest.

“We saw the show in a similar way,” Koppelman said. “And it was
clear to us that Andrew would have a point of view on this
material and a kind of access to the world that would be very
hard to come by otherwise, so it became very simple to break our
rule.”

Now part of a trio, Koppelman and Levien, through Sorkin’s
contacts, began to shadow people in hedge funds as well as
federal prosecutors.

A big takeaway for them: People on Wall Street talk about going
through 9/11 a lot.

“We would sit with people and almost everybody had some take on
how their life, their company, their perspective was changed by
9/11,” Koppelman said.

Levien added: “If you’re going to do a story about people who
have gone through our recent history here on Wall Street, there
are going to be certain events that they would have to contend
with. One was the crash, but such a huge thing was what happened
on 9/11.”

In the first episode, we find that Axe has created an education
fund in memory of those in his firm who died in the terrorist
attacks. In fact, he’s the only one who was away from the
office that morning, saving his life but also showing the
audience how untouchable Axe is.

On the other side, while U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades
struggles with pressure from the media to be tough on
white-collar crime, he also has pressure at home, like the fact
that his wife works as a shrink at Axe’s company. Rhoades also
has an S&M fetish, which leads to a revealing twist by
the end of the pilot.

“We thought it was a great opening for the character and for the
series to start in that way,” Levien said of a scene
featuring Rhoades tied up and gagged.

Damian Lewis in
"Billions."Showtime/
'Billions'

This mix of authentic financial backdrop
and titillating subplots defines the allure of "Billions."
Naturally, it caught Showtime’s attention, which snatched up the
show quickly. The cable network is offering the pilot
episode for free, and it's quickly picking up steam
on social media as one of the must-see new shows of 2016.

But Koppelman and Levien admit there is a little luck involved in
all the anticipation, noting that with Oscar nominee “The Big
Short” doing well in theaters, audiences are primed to
be fascinated in a story like “Billions.”

“It just raises people’s consciousness that there are interesting
stories out there in the business world,” Levien said. “Finance
touches everyone’s life in a certain way and when you get behind
it, you can see what makes these people in the industry tick."